President-elect Donald Trump said he intends to nominate Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor known for his criticism of Covid lockdowns, to serve as the next director of the National Institutes of Health.
In a statement Tuesday, Trump said, "Dr. Bhattacharya will work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to direct the Nation's Medical Research, and to make important discoveries that will improve Health and save lives."
Kennedy, Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, is a vocal vaccine skeptic who has spread controversial and debunked ideas about health, including that HIV was not the sole cause of AIDS and that the coronavirus targeted certain racial groups.
He has claimed for years that vaccines can cause autism, a position based on decades-old research that has been discredited and retracted. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with ASD [autism spectrum disorder]."
